Hello,
After recently installing solar panels I started investigating ways to use my energy more efficiently. As I work from home most days, I wanted to know what combinations of appliances I could use throughout the day in the most efficient way. eg if I'my solar is generating 5kw, could I run the AC, the washing machine and the dishwasher all at once? Or would I be best to run them one after the other so as not to cross the 5kw threshold? The only way to work this out accurately was to see in real time how much power was being used at any given time as appliances are turned on and off. Easy peasy. Or so I thought.
I’ve downloaded the AGL app and as best I can see there is no ‘real-time’ usage display, only 24-48hr updates which isn’t particularly helpful. I tried to dig a little deeper and I seem to have fallen down an online rabbit hole of government conspiracies and dark web hack sites, where people much more technical than I are trying to achieve what I thought would be a very basic and obvious function of a "smart" meter.
Alas, it would seem that the powers that be really don’t want us to have access to such basic information. Can this be true? I might accept this is some inexplicable technical difficultly, but I read that customers in Victoria do indeed get to access to at least half hourly updates in real time, while us mere mortals in NSW and QLD do not get such privileges. Something smells off.
Please tell me I'm missing something very obvious here. 🙂
